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Nigeria food aid ‘stolen’

Women cook in pots heated up with firewood at an Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp at Dikwa, in Borno State in north-eastern Nigeria, on February 2, 2016.AFP
The insurgency has caused a humanitarian crisis in Nigeria

Officials in Nigeria say half of government food aid sent to people displaced by an Islamist insurgency never reached them. Nearly three-million people have been displaced during the eight-year uprising by Boko Haram militants.

The spokesman for Acting President Yemi Osinbajo said a new system, launched earlier this month, had drastically reduced the diversion of aid – a polite word for theft.

Now, hundreds of police and soldiers escort the vehicles delivering the food, right to the point where it is given to the hungry.

More than 1,000 trucks filled with grain are on their way to the north-east. One-and-a-half million people are said to be on the brink of famine. And Boko Haram fighters continue to attack, despite a more robust offensive by the military.